The Spheres epic Wizard of Oz Las Vegas spectacle will blow your mind — and blast you right out of Kansas | Latest Tech News
There’s no place like Sphere.
A hotly anticipated Las Vegas Sphere residency for “The Wizard of Oz” kicks off Thursday, Aug. 28 — placing the beloved 1939 Hollywood traditional not just back on the big screen, but at the best decision screen in the world, stretching 160,000 sq. ft.
Featuring seats that transfer with the motion and sound blasted out of 167,000 crystal-clear audio system, it’s a setup that would possible wow even the great Wizard himself.
“It’s an experience,” MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan told The Post.
Sphere-goers will meet Oz in spectacular fashion — very similar to he greeted Dorothy. Sphere Entertainment
James Dolan called the multi-sensory show “an experience.” Sphere Entertainment
The man who famously sketched the initial design of the Sphere in a pocket book before turning it into one of the most talked-about leisure venues on Earth, Dolan’s $2.3 billion ardour project turns the timeworn story of Dorothy and her eclectic gang of friends into a futuristic feast for the senses.
“We engage in everything but taste and smell,” said Dolan, whose crew of specialists has been tapping their ruby slippers together for numerous hours to assemble the immersive, $104-and-up per ticket “experience” that’s designed to transport viewers into the film itself — sparing no expense along the best way.
The film’s epic twister will not only be heard but also felt — with help from particular results. Sphere Entertainment
Visual results artist Glenn Derry (left) and producer Jane Rosenthal are engulfed in a haze while watching a trial run of the show. Sphere Entertainment
“You’ll feel the wind from the tornado,” Dolan said of precise gusts and fog that envelops the space at one level, powered by 12-foot-tall followers with 750 horsepower each.
“And when the ground shakes, that’s programmed into your chair as well,” he said of the auditorium’s 10,000 haptics-enabled seats in the huge venue, which soars 366 ft high.
“There are some parts that will blow your mind.”
Following the ‘Yellow Brick Road’ to Sin City
The 1939 traditional starred Ray Bolger as Scarecrow (from left), Jack Haley as Tin Man, Judy Garland as Dorothy and Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion. Courtesy Everett Collection
“Getting the rights was the easy part,” said producer Jane Rosenthal, who initially steered “Wizard” to Dolan as an thrilling follow-up to buzzy residencies by U2 and the Backstreet Boys and director Darren Aronofsky’s immersive “Postcard from Earth.”
Rosenthal thought the cinema traditional would lend itself effectively to the Sphere, following in the movie’s footsteps of breaking special-effects ground.
Dolan recruited Oscar-winning visual-effects supervisor Ben Grossmann, tasking him with the monumental job of inventing new methods to up the theatrical ante.
But remodeling the practically century-old film into a cutting-edge, all-encompassing expertise, including precise fire and literal flying monkeys, was as fraught as a journey to Oz.
The Backstreet Boys carry out to a packed venue in July. Live Nation
U2 — that includes Bono (above) — opened the Sphere in 2023. Amiee Stubbs/imageSPACE / MEGA
The Sphere is a spectacular addition to the Las Vegas skyline. Sphere Entertainment
“It’s rare you start a project knowing it might not be possible to finish,” Grossman told The Post. “You always keep pushing until there’s either nothing left to push for, or nothing left to push with.
“The way Jim (Dolan) runs the Sphere, nobody gets to a comfortable place and then stops,” he said.
Cue those flying monkeys
Flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch of the West tormented Dorothy during her go to to Oz. Courtesy Everett Collection
At one level, the project practically hit the yellow brick wall — and was about to be deserted.
After intensive work with a prototype, the crew was in a position to showcase the consequence at the Sphere for the first time — it didn’t go effectively at all, Grossman admitted.
“We were feeling really good about ourselves, because we’re classic Hollywood cinema professionals,” he joked, revealing the horrifying second when they seen the unique movie, shot with a limiting, 1.37:1 facet ratio, on a screen that no one may have even dreamed of ever present back in 1939.
“It felt like a Saturday morning cartoon — we got the wind knocked out of us,” Grossman recalled, saying the crew was left all but in tears.
Breathtaking visuals encompass concert-goers during a U2 show at the Sphere in September 2023. “The Wizard of Oz” will offer a related expertise for followers of the beloved musical. via REUTERS
Ben Grossman will get a preview of the Sphere show. Sphere Entertainment
Massive inflatable legs belonging to the Wicked Witch of the East — who was famously crushed by Dorothy’s home in the film — have been cheekily used to promote the upcoming show at the Sphere. Sphere Entertainment
But like a burst of knowledge from Auntie Em herself, a collaborating tech whiz on loan from Google DeepMind had a sudden brainwave.
“He said, ‘I combined this approach and this approach, and I came up with this new thing, and you can tell me if it’s good.’ We were, like, ‘Holy crap — that’s exactly what we’ve been trying to do!’”
The consequence makes use of AI “outpainting” to broaden on scenes — thus filling out the huge screen.
That fixed tweaking has continued right up to its premiere.
“We’re still working on it,” Dolan told The Post at press time.
‘The dreams you dare to dream really do come true’
Dorothy and Toto aren’t in Kansas anymore — they’re in Nevada now, too. Courtesy Everett Collection
While the crew might have set out to reinvent the theatrical expertise, they have been concurrently resolute about staying true to the 85-year-old source materials.
“Everything was made with loving, deep care and attention,” said Rosenthal, whose crew dove into the Warner Bros. archives to determine out the unique needs of the late Victor Fleming, who directed most of the movie before taking over manufacturing on another Hollywood traditional, “Gone with the Wind.”
“We’ve taken a lot of the intent of what they had wanted to do and added that to the picture,” Rosenthal explained, noting they painstakingly sifted through the unique shot lists, prop lists and scripts of what the ’30s-era filmmakers meant to seize but either ran out of time, or didn’t have the finances or technological means to obtain.
Jane Rosenthal, James Dolan and Ben Grossman oversee a viewing at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Sphere Entertainment
Dolan said his favourite restored second happens in the skies, high above the Emerald City.
“The Wicked Witch of the West is skywriting and [it normally] says ‘Surrender Dorothy,’ but in the original cut, it said ‘Surrender Dorothy Or Die,’” which was apparently too darkish for pre-war audiences.
“So we put the ‘Or Die’ back in,” he revealed.
The venue’s immersive sound system also permits audiences to hear more dialogue and environmental sounds that have been misplaced, Dolan promised — also noting that the movie’s sweeping, iconic rating, for which composer Herbert Stothart gained an Academy Award, has been refreshed.
“We split the vocals and rerecorded the music with an orchestra in the original MGM studios, where the original score was recorded,” said Rosenthal.
“The first time we heard it, I just started to cry. It’s so emotional, and it’s so gorgeous.”
Discourse in Munchkinland
The Sphere guarantees an wonderful fan journey to rival that of Dorothy and associates. Courtesy Everett Collection
With 120,000 tickets bought as the highly-anticipated Vegas premiere attracts close to — replete with Oz-ian friends like Lorna Luft, daughter of Judy Garland, who performed Dorothy in the film — the crew finds themselves with one last impediment to overcome.
After an early glimpse was teased by “CBS Sunday Morning” earlier this summer season, critics have been fast to call it “absolutely terrible” — even labeling it “radically mutilated” by the use of AI.
“I read all of the negative comments, and I think some people would get depressed or demoralized from it, but I actually just think it’s funny,” Grossman told The Post. “You’re watching people talk about something that they haven’t seen. Ninety percent of the stuff that they say is just made up and not true.”
When it comes to criticism of the sky, for instance, “All of the skies are real,” Grossman says. “We photographed them with the world’s highest resolution camera, shooting in Kansas to capture the kind of skies that form before and after a tornado.”
Adds Grossman: “We never touched any of the things you’re complaining about. I’ve heard, ‘I can’t believe they changed the design of the Wizard’s head!’ But that’s the design of the Wizard’s head from the original movie, from production sketches.”
When it comes to criticism that its unique 102-minute runtime has been pared down to 75 minutes, Dolan said, “The original kind of dwelled on a few things that were somewhat superfluous,” without giving specifics.
“Everything you love about the movie, I guarantee, is in the movie,” he said.
What’s next for The Sphere?
Sphere Entertainment
Amid latest chatter that Taylor Swift, whose aptly-titled, extremely anticipated new album “Life of a Showgirl” drops Oct. 3, may very well be the Sphere’s next occupant — which reps reportedly deny — Dolan says they’re booked up until September 2027.
Aside from “Oz,” the current Backstreet Boys run will be adopted up by the Zac Brown Band in December.
Next yr will see the premiere of “From the Edge,” an excessive sports activities movie, with Dolan saying it’ll be composed of “experiences like riding down an 80-foot wave.”
Meanwhile, a duplicate of the Vegas Sphere is being constructed in Abu Dhabi — the first of a deliberate community.
“I’m also hoping by the end of the year to have something to announce about where the first smaller Sphere goes, probably somewhere in the United States,” Dolan teased to The Post.
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